HARPER’S INDEX

Rank of “Jesus” and “Mohammed,” respectively, among the Wikipedia articles with the most editorial changes : 8,3 Rank of “George W. Bush” : 1 Projected height, in feet, of a Saudi skyscraper, nanced by the bin Laden family, that will be the tallest in the world : 3,281 Cost of a U.S. command center completed last November in Afghanistan’s Helmand province : $34,000,000 Number of days it has been used : 0 Percentage of students enrolled in Afghan schools in 2001 who were girls : 0 Percentage of those enrolled today who are : 40 Chance a U.S. public school had full-time security in 1997 : 1 in 17 Today : 1 in 3 Percentage increase in the number of private security guards employed in Europe since 2004 : 73 Percentage by which private guards outnumber police there : 25 Percentage change in the number of immigrants entering the United States illegally between 2006 and 2011 : –73 Price of a simulated illegal border crossing at an amusement park in Hidalgo, Mexico : $20 Average length of time, in years, a prisoner placed in solitary con nement in California spends there : 7 Factor by which a California prisoner in solitary is more likely than one in the general population to commit suicide : 33 Percentage change in New York’s state-prison population since 1999 : –25 In the state’s violent-crime rate over that time : –31 Amount Verizon charges the government to tap a phone line for one month : $775 Amount Facebook charges the government for access to user pro les : $0 Percentage of Americans who believe journalists contribute “not very much” or “nothing at all” to society : 27 Percentage who say that using social media has never made them feel better about themselves : 60 Chance that an American with a smartphone has used it during sex : 1 in 10 Portion of Americans making $75,000 or more annually who report feeling lonely : 1/5 Of those making $15,000 or less who do : 2/5 Amount New York City ned two sanitation workers for accepting a ten-dollar tip last year : $2,000 Percentage change since 1979 in the portion of low-wage workers holding a four-year college degree : +100 Portion of American workers who say they are either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work : 7/10 Percentage of the current unemployment rate attributable to uncertainty about federal economic policy : 17 Number of states in which it is legal to re someone over sexual orientation : 29 Portion of the U.S. population who believe it is against federal law to do so : 9/10 Date on which the Lebanese Psychiatric Society declared that homosexuality is not an illness : 7/11/2013 Year in which the Iowa Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage : 2009 Portion of Iowans who say the decision has had either no impact or a positive impact on their lives : 3/4 Portion of Americans who provide some care for family members or friends with signi cant health problems : 2/5 Date on which Mississippi became the last state to legalize the brewing of beer at home : 7/1/2013 Percentage change since 2011 in the number of people who die of heroin overdoses in Maine each year : +300 The last year the World Series–winning team didn’t have at least one player implicated in performance-enhancing-drug use : 2005 Kernels of corn it takes to make one kernel of Jelly Belly candy corn : 156 Estimated percentage of all Lucky Charms cereal eaten by adults : 45 Projected year by which the sale of adult diapers will outpace the sale of baby diapers in Japan : 2020

Figures cited are the latest available as of August 2013. Sources are listed on page 94. “Harper’s Index” is a registered trademark.